The Lyons Share

The Woods Mill stream restoration is well underway. It's perhaps a week away from completion, the channel has nearly been cut and the ox-bow lakes are being added. Later this week the riffles and course woody-debris will be some of the final touches before the new channel is connected up and water is allowed to flow  along it naturally (the water in the above photo has simply gathered at the base of the channel - it's not connected up yet).

This has been a joint project between SWT and Environment Agency and has been many years in the making. It's great to see it finally taking shape. It does (and will for a short time) look very bare but this was always going to happen, a necessary part of the process. Vegetation will establish very quickly and by next spring and summer the site will be unrecognisable. I am monitoring these changes, with amongst many things, fixed-point photography. I hope to put together a 'time-lapse' sequence of stills. Watch this space, it's going to be amazing!

As we were observing the project today we saw a Little Egret fly over and I heard my first Redpolls of the season. This latest post will have put birds as my most frequently used label, bad luck beetles!